Drugs, drinking, and death

I believe that teenagers should refrain from doing drugs during high school. With all of the extra curricular activities that our school offers, it amazes me that a good majority of my classmates can be found getting drunk or high during their free time. Just the other day I had my first behind the wheel and I was waiting with my driving partners (lets call them Jill and Todd) for Mr. Johnsen to come and take us driving. Of course the conversation turned into talking about Jenna’s birthday party last weekend, and Jill and Todd started talking about how drunk they got and what major trouble their friends found themselves in when they were caught getting high. This conversation really calmed my fist behind the wheel jitters!!

Since my feelings may not be the typical teenagers’ thoughts on drinking and doing drugs, many of you may be having a hard time understanding where I’m coming from. Hopefully, once you here what I’m about to tell you, you will understand me better.

My Uncle Jason was the funniest kid ever. My grandma always tells me these funny stories about him and all the pranks he used to pull, it’s a shame I never got to know him. On February 16, 1992 my uncle was grounded and my aunt, who is younger than him, was supposed to be keeping an eye on him while my grandparents went to a party. It turns out Uncle Jason snuck out of the house and went to his friends party with his cousin. We found out later there was alcohol at the party when my family learned that his cousin drove my uncle home and dropped him off in front of his house. Uncle Jason was too drunk to walk across the driveway into his house and he collapsed in the street. By this time it was dark, and a policeman driving by ran him over. My grandparents came home from the party to find their son dead in front of their house. My uncle was sixteen when he died, that is way too young to die.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, he died because he drove with a drunk driver, I would never do that.” But, you don’t know, when you are drinking your judgment is impaired, so you are not fully in control of your actions when you drink or when you do drugs, but if you decide to abstain from drugs and alcohol then you are in control.

My Uncle died when he was sixteen because of the poor choice he made to go out and get drunk. Right now, I am sixteen and I choose to refrain from drinking and doing drugs because I believe that’s what my uncle would want me to do.

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Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.